


Waterdrop

by Csribbles



Category: Borderlands
Genre: F/F, F/M, Giant sea monsters, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sea Monsters, That cause death and destruction, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-18
Updated: 2017-04-05
Packaged: 2018-07-24 17:31:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 6,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7517074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Csribbles/pseuds/Csribbles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He laid at the bottom of the sea, thinking about the day he lost it all. His friends, his family, even his home. His life had no purpose anymore. </p><p>He sat up, looking back at where he had come from, seeing the darkness of the deeper sea after the drop of the underwater cliff he was sitting ontop of, wondering if there was any chance he could return to look for them. He carefully swam over to the edge and looked down. He could still hear their screams, and all the cuts he'd gotten were burning and stinging. </p><p>When he heard a distant noice of the Destroyer, he backed up. The creature was still alive. He couldn't risk going there, he would surely die. He had to start heading to the warmer waters, where the sun reached the bottom and where bigger boats didn't reach.</p><p>Further away from the monster, closer to humans.</p><p>From one danger to another.</p><p>He sighed and started to swim.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Swallow your tears

He laid at the bottom of the sea, thinking about the day he lost it all. His friends, his family, even his home. His life had no purpose anymore.

He sat up, looking back at where he had come from, seeing the darkness of the deeper sea after the drop of the underwater cliff he was sitting ontop of, wondering if there was any chance he could return to look for them. He carefully swam over to the edge and looked down. He could still hear their screams, and all the cuts he'd gotten were burning and stinging.

When he heard a distant noice of the Destroyer, he backed up. The creature was still alive. He couldn't risk going there, he would surely die. He had to start heading to the warmer waters, where the sun reached the bottom and where bigger boats didn't reach.

Further away from the monster, closer to humans.

From one danger to another.

He sighed and started to swim.

 

* * *

 

He knew he had reached a whole new area when the rocky ground turned to sand. Having sand instead of rocks at the bottom was nice, he thought as he let his hands brush against it. It was relaxing. Helped him forget all the pain and misery he had gone through earlier, atleast for a while. Then he crashed into something.

"Hey! Watch it!" The thing growled at him while he tried to straighten himself with his long ass tail. When he finally got a good look at what he had crashed, he saw it was a mermaid, with hair like he'd never seen before, and beehive shaped markings that were an orange shade, unlike his markings that were from a clan he wasn't familiar with. They were blue and weirdly shaped. Hers were really pretty and looked nice on her side, along her ribcage. Her tail was black, though not even nearly as long as Rhys', her hips were wide, and her fins were sharp looking.

"Oh! Um! Hello!" Rhys stuttered, his long blue tail akwardly flopping behind him as he tried to keep himself straight in these waters, it was quite alot different than what he was used to down in the bottom deeps.

"You're not from here, are you?" She said, crossing her arms, letting her wide ended tail with it's big wide fins beautifully take her closer to Rhys as she inspected the merboy. His tail was long and bright blue, though the small fins at the sides had a small yellow shine to them, aswell as the short one on the middle of his tails backside. Rhys instead glanced at her tail again, seeing how the tail actually had alot of orange and red highlights, the big long fin at the back of it being a bright, burning red. The wide end of the tail swooped by his face, making him akwardly try to widen and open his end tail, but to no success.

"N-no. How'd you know?" Rhys asked once the mermaid was facing him again. She snorted, bubbles of air escaping her nose.

"I haven't seen you here, plus you have the tail of someone who lives deep down in a secured cave somewhere. Or just a secured cave." She explained, gesturing in the direction of his tail, and he slowly nodded. "And the tattoos."

"Right." He rubbed the back of his long neck before almost turning upside down again. He blushed in embarrasment when he heard the woman laugh. "Not funny..."

"Sorry. Must be hard, suddenly changing waters. What made you do so?" She crossed her arms again, furrowing her brows. Rhys' eyes widened in shock as images from last night returned. The sharp fins shot out of his tail, making it into a wepon of mass destruction, and the woman gasped, swimming a few feet away.

"The... the Destroyer... my entire family, all my friends... my city... it's... it's all gone... I..." He felt the sting of tears in his eyes and he curled into a ball and let himself sink to the bottom, sighing as he felt the softness of the sand. His tail shortly returned to normal, though he was still shaking. He felt a soft hand on his shoulder, the thumb of it stroaking his skin.

"Hey, you allright?" The woman asked. He slowly nodded and let himself be pulled up by her. "I'm Yvette, by the way."

"M'Rhys..." He mumbled rubbing his forehead with his palm. Yvette nodded and threw an arm around him, pulling him up. She said something about getting him to saftey, away from the wide open where a shark could easilt come and grab him. He nodded along, but didn't listen to most of it. He could only think about the things that had happened, about the blood, about how the fishes all swam away as fast as they could. It had been terrifying. He knew he was safe only because he had been looking around, looking up at the small light above, wondering if he could ever go see the sky, and that's when it happened. First, he heard the screams. Then he saw the fishes. Then he smelt the blood. He swam down to the cave entrance to see the most horrifying thing happening. The huge monster was tearing apart monsters, biting the merpeople in half, swallowing them whole or just crushing them. He had ofcourse fled as quickly as he could, and ended up being so exhausted that he passed out a little after getting ontop of the cliff. Now that he thought about it, the Destroyer could have easily killed him there. He shivered.

"Rhys?" He felt himself being elbowed softly, and his name was called. He shook himself out of his thoughts and looked at the woman in confusion

"Wh- huh?" He stuttered. Yvette let out a sigh, bringing a hand to her face and rubbing the bridge of her nose.

"Were you listening at all?" She slowly asked and Rhys shrugged. He gave a weak apologetic smile.

"Sorry... no... I was thinking about stuff." He turned his head to look away, and ended up looking straight at another merman. He had a short orange tail with green highlights, and he was weirdly buff. The tattoos he had were much alike to the womans. They were from the same clan. Rhys pouted slightly, his eyebrows shotting up in suprise at the man. "Uh, hi."

"Hey." The man rubbed his neck, letting out an akward laugh. "I'm Vaughn." Yvette swam next to him and put an arm around him. Vaughn pouted at her but she seemed to ingore that.

"Me and Vaughn were just wondering if you would happen to be in need of a doctor. You're pretty scratched up." She spoke, looking Rhys up and down, who relized he hadn't stopped at any point to actually inspect his damages. He swiftly nodded at the two. "Vaughn will take you there. I'll have to go make sure this all is allright in the eyes of our leaders." Rhys frowned slightly, but nodded. He looked after her as she left before looking down at Vaughn.

"So, lets go..?" 


	2. Making friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys makes friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Are ya'all enjoying this so far?

Rhys left the weird building after being checked over by a merman who didn't seem too nice, and who also had no markings whatsoever. Rhys found it kind of odd, but didn't want to question it when he was inside. After he left and went back to Vaughn, he blurted it out.

"Why didn't that guy have markings?" He asked as he swam next to Vaughn, who seemed a bit taken back by the question. He scratched his neck.

"Oh, well, um, you saw the necklace he had?" He questioned as they swam into unknown district, causing Rhys to become slightly tense for a moment. He frowned slightly but kept swimming.

"I..." He thought back to the moment. He remembered a big stone hanging from the mans neck. He nodded. "Oh, yeah, a stone. What about it?" Vaughn smiled at him.

"He's actually human. The necklace makes him into one of us." Rhys stopped in his tracks, almost toppling over his long tail, a shocked expression on his face.

"What-!?" He spat out, glaring at the merman. Vaughn stopped aswell, frowning slightly.

"Relax, they're not that bad." He reached to put a hand on Rhys' shoulder, but the other ducked away from him.

"I might not have seen one personally, but I have heard stories! They are monsters!" Rhys growled, his guills flaring in anger. Vaughn swam a few feet away, clearly scared.

"Rhys, I don't know what stories you've heard, but I promise, there are good people out there too." Vaughn tried to explain to the other, but he didn't seem to convinced. "They have stories about us, too. That we're all human eating psychopaths for one."

"But theres only a few ones that do that! They can't blame an entire population for the mistakes of a few foolish ones!" Rhys flailed his arms slightly, his back finn raising up while the other merman furrowed his brows and crossed his arms.

"Exactly." He clicked his tongue. Rhys opened his mouth to question the other, but closed it soon after, biting his tongue in relazation.

"I- oh." He looked away, embarrased. Vaughn sniggered, continuing his swimming. Rhys akwardly swam after him, not saying anything anymore. He was deep in thought. Suddenly he noticed that Vaughn had been talking to him. He shook his head and looked at the merman.

"-vette." Vaughn had a smile on his lips, and he turned to look at Rhys who looked entirely baffeled. "Were you listening at all?" He frowned as the other looked down.

"Sorry... no, I was thinking..." Rhys gave a weak smile and looked back up. Vaughn shook his head and smiled again.

"It's cool. I understand." He wrapped an arm around the skinnier, less buff merman. "So as I was saying, we have many different jobs here. Some include going to the deeper parts of the sea, looking for different treasures we can sell. Some include selling and counting the treasures, that's what I take care of." Rhys nodded, interested in this knowledge. Maybe he could get a job too. "And then theres ofcourse the basics, doctors, hunters, store keepers and all that. And then theres those who save lost mermen or drowning humans. Like, uh, Yvette."

"Oh, right. That's why she was so far away from the... uh, from here." Vaughn nodded at that. Rhys chuckled. "Can I get a job?"

"Yeah, you can." Vaughn smiled at Rhys whose eyes widened and he grinned, showing his sharp pointy teeth. "Oh and then theres those who go into the human world and, I don't know, do stuff."

"Cool! What should I do?" Rhys asked, not noticing that they had arrived at some house, and ended up crashing into it. He heard Vaughn laugh before helping him straighten out again. He chuckled aswell.

"In your old home, did you have a job?" Vaughn asked as he opened the door with a key that had been hanging around his neck. They swam inside. It looked pretty nice there, better than what Rhys had before.

"Not really." He bit his lip, thinking for a moment. "Or, well, I did sometimes go look for people. Me and a few mermen who were there to protect me. I was pretty good at finding lost souls." He chuckled softly as he leaned against some weird looking thing that was made out of stone.

"Maybe you should go with Yvette." Vaughn blurted out. Rhys furrowed his brows. "To check out the job."

"Ah. Yeah, I-" A loud knock on the door cut him off. Vaughn swam over to it and opened it. Yvette was there, holding a box in her arms. She smiled and swam inside.

"Hey, Yvette! We were just talking about you." Vaughn said with a chuckle. Yvette cocked a brow and huffed. She placed the box on a table nearby.

"Oh really?" She turned to face them, a smirk playing on her lips. Rhys felt a slight blush creep up on his pale, grayish face.

"We... uh, about your job." He muttered, akwardly rubbing the back of his long neck. Vaughn swam to his side with a grin and threw an arm around him.

"Yeah! You should take Rhys with you so he could see what it's like!" Rhys frowned slightly, looking at Vaughn on suprise. He heard Yvette chuckle, and he looked over at her.

"I can do that." She said with a smile. Rhys gaped at her before smiling back.

"You- you can?" She nodded. He grinned and lounged towards her, catching her into a tight hug. "Thank you!"

"Ah, ha yeah, I'm hungry though." She looked over at Vaughn as she pushed Rhys away, and chuckled.

"Lunchleech." Vaughn said with a laugh and swam into another room.

"And we should also get you an apartment, unless Vaughn is willing to keep you here. But that's another problem for another time." She grabbed Rhys by the elbow and pulled him after her. "Lets go help him out."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is what merman Rhys' tattoos look like! Follow me for possible art for my fics! <3
> 
> http://ninosoderholm.tumblr.com/post/147841603239/merman-rhys-concept-art


	3. First day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys gets to work, but it happens to be a stormy day. Will he save any lives?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the lack of updates!!! Im so sorry! Ive had a huge writersblock, sadly.
> 
> Check out Rhys' tail and tats; 
> 
> http://ninosoderholm.tumblr.com/post/149474342519/rhack-fic-waterdrop-on-ao3

It was a stormy day when he joined Yvette in her job. Apparently that meant that they would possibly find more people, but Rhys didn't find that to be comforting. At all. At one point, Yvette told him to go to check out closer to the shores while she went a bit deeper. Promised him she would come meet him at the big stone not too far away from where they swam right now. With a fustrated groan, Rhys agreed to it.

Besides from the big waves, there really wasn't anything special around. Until he glanced over to his right and saw the bottom of a boat. He quickly moved out of the way, and watched as the boat clashed with quite a few rocks. It started quickly sinking, and Rhys could barely make sense out of the big man who jumped out of it. He seemingly hit his head into something, and opened his arms. The small figure of another human swam out of his arms, clearly panicked.

Rhys hesitated for a second before swimming over to the smaller one, the girl, and grabbed her, helping her put of the water, onto the sand. While she was coughing the water out of her lungs, Rhys lunged back into the water, retreating back to the man. Probably her father, he assumed. He barely got the man up from the bottom, his tail kicking hard as he pulled him to the top, slowly making his way to where he'd left the little girl.

First thing he did, was he started to check the man for any injuries, only finding the one in his head, which luckily wasn't too bad. Then he started giving him what Yvette had called "CPR". When the man started coughing out water, he turned him on his side and patted his back.

"Uh, human?" He muttered after a while. He glanced up at the small girl who just stared at him in awe. "Uh... _hi?_ "

"Are you a mermaid?" She slowly asked, crawling a bit closer to them. Rhys smiled at her.

"Merman, actually." He glanced at the man. "Is this your father, young one?"

"Yes... I'm Angel." She offered her hand to him, and he stared at it for a while, then looked at her confused. She didn't expect him to shake hands with her, did she? "Uh, don't you know how to shake hands?" Apparently, yes she did.

"I _do_ , I just... you're a _human_." He muttered, his one hand squeezing the mans shoulder tightly. He noticed his breathing grow ragged, and he glanced at him. He met two gorgerous heterochromatic eyes, one blue, one green. "Woah..." He brought his hand to the mans face, slowly letting his fingers stroke down his cheek.

"What in the _hell_ -" The eyes traveled down Rhys' torso, down to his tail. "Son of a _taint_ , you're... you're a friggin mermaid."

"Mer-"

"Mer _man_." The girl putted it. "He's a boy, so he's a merman." She smiled at Rhys, and then at her father.

" _Huh_." The man slowly nodded, looking back to Rhys. He quickly slapped away the hand from his face and scooted away from the tailed creature, quickly standing up. "Babygirl." He reached to grab his daughter, who ducked away from him, grabbing Rhys' pale arm with her small, petite ones. Rhys and the man both frowned.

"Hey, _Angel_ , was it?" When the girl nodded, Rhys continued. "Go with your father. I need to return to the water, honey."

"Will I ever see you again?" The girl asked, hope glistening in her big, blue eyes as she stared at Rhys, causing his heart to melt a bit. He smiled.

"Maybe." The girl grinned and let go of Rhys, grabbing her fathers hand, letting him hoist her up from the cold, wet sand.

"Daddy, can we come here tomorrow?? Mister merman, will _you_ be here tomorrow?" Her father groaned while Rhys and Angel giggled. With a bright smile, Rhys nodded.

"We'll see." He said. He noticed how the man tightened his grip on his daughter.

"C'mon Angel. Lets _go_." With that, he dragged her after him, and Rhys slowly slid back into the water. He decided to return to the big rock where Yvette was already waiting for him.

"Where were-" Yvette cut herself off when she saw the big goofy grin on Rhys' face, anf crossed her arms.

"I just saved this guy and his daughter from drowning." Rhys blurted out. "The girl was really adorable, she had black hair and her name was Angel, I didn't get her fathers name, but he was _gorgerous_ , so handsome, his eyes were two different colours-"

"Okay, okay. I got it. You have a crush on a human." Yvette cut him off with a dramatic eyeroll. Rhys frowned, crossing his arms as he tried to stay straight with his tail.

"What? _No_." He sneered, turning up his nose in disgust. Yvette groaned, simply turning her back with a muttered "sure" which Rhys just groaned at. After a moment, Rhys broke the silence again. "I'll come here tomorrow too, just thought you should know."

"Why? Got a date with the gorgerous human?" Yvette teased, smirking at him. He shot a glare at her.

" **No**. His daughter liked me. Wants to meet me again." Rhys explained, looking forwards at the nearing underwater houses. He heard Yvette snicker.

"Pfft, _allright_." She said with a laugh. Rhys just rolled his eyes.

 


	4. Jack

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little bit of violence has never hurt anybody.
> 
> Oh wait-

Rhys returned to the beach in the morning with Vaughn. The shorter merman had promised him that he would wait with him until his job started, and he would be forced to leave the deep sea merman alone.

So there they waited, talking about all kinds of things, mostly Vaughn telling Rhys about the lifestyle that they had here, and Rhys found that very interesting. He ended up telling Vaughn about his childhood and about the way the merpeople around him were when he grew up. It was very different from here. Here they were much nicer, much more chill. Down there it was all very strict, and there were tons of rules. Rhys never really liked it there, but it was home.

After a few hours, Vaughn had to leave, and Rhys was alone. He waited, and waited, and waited. He noticed it was about to be night, and was already ready to leave when he heard the noice of a small girl giggling. He looked back at the beach, and saw Angel running towards the water. He smiled, swimming back to the sand.

"Rhys! You came!" She squeaked, and Rhys couldn't help but smile as he took her hand into his.

"Ofcourse I did, you adorable little goofball." Rhys said, squeezing her hand gently. He looked over at Jack, who was staring down at him with a very unimpressed look across his face. "Hey there," he gave the man a weak smile, which was returned by a scoff.

"Sup." Jack nodded at him as he sat down onto the beach, staring at the two who were now partly in the water, the merman showing his tattoos to Angel. Jacks eyes followed the markings all the way down his body, and he smirked. The guy wasn't too bad looking, either. But then Rhys lifted his body but if the water and the tattoos started fading. He tilted his head at that. Rhys seemedto notice it.

"Merpeople tattoos are only visible in water," Rhys explained to Jack, a small smile on his face as he looked at Angel who was grinning happily.

"It's how they tell eachother apart!" She giggled, clapping her hands as Rhys gave her a thumbs up. Jack chuckled.

"That's nice, baby." And that's how the rest of the evening went. Rhys showed Angel tricks and told her about merpeople, and she told excitedly the things to Jack, who found it pretty adorable. At one point though, while Rhys was telling her a story, her eyes started to close. And not long after, she fell asleep. Rhys smiled.

"That always puts kids asleep." He mumbled with a smile as he stroked her hair.

"Heh, yeah, I was wondering why you were telling such a boring story," Jack teased, laughing. Rhys just chuckled and shook his head.

"So, will you two-" Rhys started, but Jack cut him off.

"Actually, Angel is going to her mother's for the following week. So, er, no." Jack rubbed the back of his neck as he akwardly eyed the merman, slowly walking towards him.

"O-oh."

"But... I mean, I could come," Jack suggested, looking off into the distance. Rhys swallowed, a light blue blush spreading on his gray toned face.

"Yeah, I'd like that. The same time as today?" He questioned with a small smile.

"Sure." Jack nodded as he moved to pick up Angel into his arms. He looked at Rhys for a moment before he smiled. "See ya."

"See ya..." Rhys muttered as he watched the two dissappear into the darkness and he slipped back into the sea.

His heart was beating fast in his chest as he lost balance, rolling around in the water. But he didn't care about that, all he cared about was the tingly feeling spreading across his body, and he sighed with a wide smile, his eyes sliding shut. He sank to the bottom and laid there for a moment before starting to clumsily swim back to the small town. On the way there, he felt that danger was approaching, but he couldn't pay attention to it due to the thoughts running in his head, and it was all ripped away when horrid pain spread on the right side of his body, and then there was a cloud of blood.

He screamed.

He screamed and screamed until a bright light started shining.

His tattoos lit up and his screaming changed to song as he finally got a grip of what was happening, and his instincts kicked in. He turned to glare at his attacker, the song rolling off his tongue like water. He stared at the shark. It was frozen, Rhys' arm in mouth. After a few more seconds, it dropped the arm and turned around, swimming away.

But Rhys just kept singing.

He sang until he felt a hand on his shoulder and his mouth snapped shut.

There was no pain anymore.

His tattoos had stopped glowing.

"Rhys!" He knew that voice.

"Wh-what-?" He stuttered, turning his head to look at Vaughn. The merman looked mortified, eyes wide in fear.

"What the-?! That was like magic, how the hell-" the mans eyes looking Rhys over, hands carefully grabbing his shoulder.

"I don't know, Vaughn!" Rhys snapped, heart beating fast now for entirely different reasons, eyes staring down at his shoulder. "I-I have no idea how I did any of that!" He felt tears prickling in his eyes, swallowing harshly. He felt arms wrap around him, and suddenly he was hugging Vaughn back.

He let out a sob.

Vaughn and Yvette helped him to the apartment, where the mermaid left the two men alone. Vaughn made some food for them, and they ate on the couch while watching TV.

"Hey Vaughn...?" Rhys suddenly looked at the shorter merman, who just responded by looking at him and raising his eyebrows. "Do you want to take me to the beach again tomorrow? To meet Jack?"

"Sure, I'll take you to your boyfriend," Vaughn said with a laugh. Rhys just groaned and shook his head.

"Is it possible for me to get a necklace like that doctor was wearing?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I want to suprise Jack... other than with a missing arm," he looked away with a pained expression before looking back at Vaughn.

"Uh, yeah... yeah I think... yeah." Vaughn stuttered, glancing back at one of the drawers. "I think I might have one of Yvettes here."

"Why does she have one?" Rhys questioned as he watched Vaughn swim over the couch and to the drawers, opening one.

"If she needs to take a human to medical, she'll need one." He muttered, digging in another drawer.

"Oh." Rhys looked down at his tail, it was wrapped around one of the chairs. He sighed.

"Aha! Found it!" Vaughn exlaimed with glee. Rhys looked over at him, watching him lift out a necklace out of the bottom drawer. After closing it, he swam over to Rhys and handed him the stone. "Put it on when you're on the sand. Okay?"

"Okay," Rhys nodded, swiftly adding a "thanks bro."

"Don't mention it, bro."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second date; but this time with legs.
> 
> Eh?


	5. Necklace

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ?????i am so sorry holy shit
> 
> I meant to update this and all my other fics
> 
> Im so sorry
> 
> I am a failure

When the morning came and Vaughn woke Rhys up, they ate breakfest before they headed together to Vaughns work, where Rhys got to see what kinda job his new best friend worked at. It was chill, and honestly, too boring for Rhys. He spent the most time on Vaughns tablet, playing some of the games on it, and sometimes just chatted with Vaugh.

When the shorter mermans break came, they met up with Yvette infront of a restaurant they went to every now and then, and went inside.

"So, Vaughn, I was wondering if you still had that necklace I left at your place. My new one got lost in a storm in the deeper waters today, so I happen to need it." Yvette suddenly said as they were sat at the table. Rhys and Vaughn looked at eachother before Rhys pulled the necklace out of his bag and gave it to Yvette.

"Vaughn gave it to me so I could surprise Jack, but, um, you need it for your work and it is yours after all--" Rhys gave a small frown when Yvette snatched it quickly from his hand.

"You can't do that without proper learning! You could die!" Yvette said in a hushed voice, making sure no one heard Rhys. It was taboo, even here, for mermaids to become human outside of work-- like Yvette-- and one could be jailed for doing it without the allowance of the law.

"What?!" Rhys spat, turning to stare at Vaughn in shock. "And you didn't tell me?!" The other frowned and looked away.

"I thought it would be different, since, you're, y'know..." Vaughn trailed off, making Rhys sneer.

"I'm what? Different? Not from here--" Vaughn cut him off.

"Yes, actually." Yvette looked at Vaughn with confusion. "Y'know how theres one kind of merpeople that are able to turn into human, even without the necklace with enough practice, and are the ones who originally created them, along with being abld to safely use them every time?" Rhys had no idea what he was talking about, but the mermaid seemed to do so.

"You're not trying to tell me that... he is-- you know." Yvette muttered, eyes moving between the two. Vaughn simply nodded, making Rhys' frown deepen.

"I'm what?!" He finally snapped, and Vaughn sighed. Their eyes met eachothers, and Vaughn finally gave him an answer.

"A siren." With a baffled look on his face, Rhys scooted away from the merman.

"What makes you think that?" He hissed, squinting at the shorter one. That was just ridiculous, right? There was no way--

"Your singing, to the shark, and the way your shoulder healed. It's not normal." Vaughn explained, and Rhys felt like he'd been punched in the face with words. Suddenly it all made sense. Why he never fit in anywhere, why he didn't have markings like any other mermaid, the way his tail was longer than any mermaid he'd ever met, meeting a whole lenght of 3 meters, more than double his own body.

"Id that is the case... I should be aware of it, right?" Rhys stuttered, his voice wavering. Yvette simply shook her head.

"No, not always. Sirens are kind of rare now days, and the ones that do exist, often just get killed, so he was probably hidden by his parents." She explained with a thoughtful look on her face. Vaughn crossed his arms with a small frown and looked at Rhys.

"Your parents-- the ones that raised you-- they were different from you, weren't they?" Rhys just nodded. He didn't know what to say. It shook his entire view of himself and the world.

"I-- I don't feel too well." Rhys muttered and moved past his friends and away from the table, stumbling around for a moment before he straightened up and swam out.

Yvette grabbed Vaughns arm when he was about to swim after the other. She shook her head, and he frowned before returning back to his place.

Rhys swam as fast as he could to the library. When he entered the building, he demanded the librarian to get him a book about sirens and different kinds of merpeople. When he got it handed to him, he swam over to a table and slammed it down to a table and started reading.

It all made sense suddenly.

Thats why he was so different from everyone else.

He was a siren.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope u all forgive me ;;-;


	6. Secret

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey im just slowly kinda updating fics over here lmao

After a whole day of avoiding everyone, Rhys headed to the beach where he would meet Jack. When he got there, he found the man already waiting for him, seeming kind of out of character. He didn't seem as confident as he usually was, and Rhys frowned slightly.

The merman swam to the shallow water, his hand against the sand as he pushed his head out of the water. "Jack?" The man lifted his head and met Rhys' eyes, a smile forming on his face.

"Heya kiddo," he said and sat down on his knees in the sand, while Rhys crawled out of the water. The first thing Jack noticed was his missing arm. He rushed to his side, dropping something behind him as he pulled Rhys into his arms to eye the damage closer. "What happened?!"

"I got attacked by a shark, it's nothing that bad." Atleast compared to what Rhys had gone through before. He simply gave Jack a reassuring smile and wrapped his one arm around him in an attempt to give him a hug. Jack just akwardly hugged him back before reaching for the thing he'd dropped.

"I'm happy you're alive. Sharks are dangerous, be careful kiddo." He muttered and shoved a box into Rhys' lap, and the merman shuffled out of Jacks arms and back onto the sand to check it out. He opened it, pulling out a fabric of some kind, it was yellow. "Its a Hyperion sweater. I thought I could take you on a tour around the city in my car." His eyes moved to his tail. "Your tail is pretty damn big. I honestly dont know where to put it but I'm sure we'll figure something out."

"That would be amazing... Thank you so much." Rhys muttered, hugging the shirt tightly before he pulled it on. Jack smirked and stood up. He told Rhys to wait a moment and headed over to the car, only to drive it closer. Rhys had been slightly frightened by it, but relaxed when he remembered Jack was controlling it.

The man stepped out of the vehicle with a grin on his face, and Rhys just chuckled. Jack walked over to him and carefully picked him up from the ground and carried him into the car, making his tail bend in all kinds of directions to fit in the car. He tried to make it as little visible as possible, while Rhys just stared in confusion.

"There... You're not in pain, are ya?" Rhys simply shook his head and Jack smiled before he settled himself behind the steering wheel.

"It's alike to a-- are they called snakes?-- one of those creatures that you have here, the tail bends in almost any form." Rhys told Jack with a soft smile as he pushed his hair out of his face. Jack just chuckled with a nod.

"We're gonna take a side road, we'll drive to my house and I'll get you a blanket--" He glanced at Rhys, "--and a scarf. So that I can show ya around the city. Alright?" Rhys smiled and nodded eagerly, clutching the shirt Jack had given him tightly with his one hand when the older man started the car.

"Why were you and Angel here that one time with the boat?" Rhys suddenly asked.

"Oh, we have the boatshed on the beach, a little further away. That's why I had my car nearby too. We were coming back when the storm hit us." Jack explained as he drove, eyes concentrated on the road. "Ya see, we live nearby." He smiled, glancing quickly at Rhys before looking at the road again.

"How nearby?"

"See that huge mansion roof? Behind the trees, in the middle of the forest." Rhys nodded, his eyes landing on the obnoxiously bright yellow roof that was sticking out through the dark trees. "That's my house. One of them. My summer cottage, technically. It's where I come when I want privacy."

"Privacy? Are you like famous or something?" Jack just laughed and nodded as they came near to a gate. The older man picked up some device and spoke into it.

"Let me in ya jackasses, it's your friggin boss." He snapped before putting the device down again. The doors slowly opened and Jack drove into the yard. "Wait for me here, okay pumpkin? Yell if somethin happens, I'll hear ya." Jack told him and Rhys just nodded. The man left, locking the doors behind him, leaving Rhys by himself. He looked out of the carwindow, noticing there were other cars-- pretty cars, sport cars, many different cars, with tinted windows, bright colours-- everything was so pretty, unlike the white van Rhys was in right now. After that he noticed everything else-- the house, the yard-- there were statues, mostly of Jack, and there was a pony, too. It was all so beautiful.

Rhys snapped out of his dreamworld when the door was suddenly pulled open and he fell out of the car as he had been leaning against the window, and landed in Jacks arms, feeling something soft wrap around him.

"C'mon, we're gonna drive in one of the nicer cars. They even have tinted windows, which ya probably noticed." Jack purred as he carried Rhys through the yard. They picked a golden and pretty sports car, where Jack again shoved Rhys' tail in the back, covering it with the blanket, before wrapping the scarf around Rhys' neck.

"I like it." Rhys muttered, rubbing his face against the soft fabric. Jack just smiled at him.

"I'm glad."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope ya liked, leave a comment :)


	7. City

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack and Rhys go to the city. Or do they..?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GUYS HOLY SHIT OKAY SO
> 
> 1ST OF ALL
> 
> I GOT AMAZING FANART??? CHECK IT OUT ITS SO GOOD OMG
> 
> http://gayroach.tumblr.com/post/158134379464/a-little-something-something-for-ninosoderholm-s
> 
> AND 2ND im v sorry ive been so absent from all my stories im a terrible person pls forgive me(´∀`) AND SERIOUSLY CHECK OUT THE AMAZING DRAWING OF MY MERMAN RHYS :0

Rhys was rubbing his face with the soft fabric the entire way to the city while Jack talked about stuff. He told Rhys about the best places in the city, and about what you could do. He mentioned many things, some of which Rhys could join in on. Rhys just nodded and smiled at him, not really knowing what to say.

At one point, he did speak up.

"Ah, I wish ya had legs so I could take ya into some fine restaurant to eat." Jack had said, to which Rhys remembered some things he'd read about sirens, and stuff his friends had told him.

"I'm a siren-- um, I think. I think I can turn into a human with some magic." He shrugged weakly, looking to the side. "Though I dunno how." After a moment, he looked back to Jack, who had gone awfully quiet. "Jack?" He asked, and the man seemed to come back from his thoughts. He shook his head and smiled at Rhys softly.

"Maybe some day, kitten. For now, we can just drive around." He winked at the boy, and Rhys just nodded with a small blush. He smiled and looked out of the window, noticing the big houses that grew up ahead. Jack seemed to notice the way he was staring at them, as he placed his hand on Rhys' shoulder. "It seems scary and big at first, but you'll get used to it." He shot Rhys a smirk before returning his hand to the steering wheel.

"Alright. I trust you Jack." He said with a soft smile, looking at the man. That's when he remembered something.

Back when he still had his home, before the monster attacked, he'd known a mermaid, named Stacy. She'd been beautiful, and Rhys had loved her.

The feeling he got with Jack was just like the one he got with her. He swallowed. "Stop the car." He muttered.

"Wha--" Jack looked at him with a confused glint in his eye, slowing the car down slightly, but he didn't stop it.

"Stop the car, Jack!" Rhys ordered, and Jack stopped. Rhys unbuckled himself, pushing his door open before he jumped out. Jack tried to catch him, but was too late, as Rhys was already faceplanting into the ground with a hiss. Jack had tried to hold onto his tail, but that had backfired, as Rhys was as slippery as a fish, making Jack internally faceplant for not remembering that.

Jumping out of the car aswell, Jack ran around the car to help Rhys up. "Rhysie, what the hell?"

"My family-- my family's dead, Jack! It's all my fault--" Rhys whimpered, trying to crawl away from Jack, but the man just tightened his grip on the onearmed merman.

"Rhys. I don't know what happened, but it wasn't your fault, I'm sure of it." Jack combed his fingers through Rhys' hair, wondering what had triggered this reaction in Rhys. He was about to ask when Rhys spoke up.

"I-- I'm sorry. I just, the way I feel about you reminded me of someone from my old home..." Rhys trailed off, shrugging slightly. "Sorry."

"No, shh, don't be sorry. It's fine." Jack pulled Rhys even closer, planting a soft kiss on the mermans long neck, smirking to himself when he noticed it turn a light shade of pink. "Do you want me to take you back home to the sea or to my place?" He smiled down at Rhys gently, pulling away slightly.

"I... I'd like to come to your home." Rhys mumbled shyly, looking down at his hand, his claws were tearing Jacks shirt slightly and he frowned. "Sorry for your shirt..." He muttered, looking away. Jack just cocked a brow and looked down.

"Hm? This old thing? Nah, I don't care. Tear it all ya want princess. I'm rich." He chuckled softly and pecked Rhys' cheek. "Let's getcha back inside, eh?" Rhys nodded with a blush, and Jack helped him into the car before jumping in aswell. With that, they were turning around and driving back to Jacks house...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, so sorry for not updating stuff in a while. And thousands of thanks for the artist, too!!! 

**Author's Note:**

> Leave a comment if u enjoyed^^


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